Get JSON from file - logstash

Question

Logstash 5.2.1
I can't read JSON documents from a local file using Logstash. There are no documents in the stdout.
I run Logstash like this:
./logstash-5.2.1/bin/logstash -f logstash-5.2.1/config/shakespeare.conf --config.reload.automatic
Logstash config:
input {
file {
path => "/home/trex/Development/Shipping_Data_To_ES/shakespeare.json"
codec => json {}
start_position => "beginning"
}
}
output {
stdout {
codec => rubydebug
}
}
Also, I tried with charset:
...
codec => json {
charset => "UTF-8"
}
...
Also, I tried with/without json codec in the input and with filter:
...
filter {
json {
source => "message"
}
}
...
Logstash console after start:
[2017-02-28T11:37:29,947][WARN ][logstash.agent ] fetched new config for pipeline. upgrading.. {:pipeline=>"main", :config=>"input {\n file {\n path => \"/home/trex/Development/Shipping_Data_To_ES/shakespeare.json\"\n codec => json {\n charset => \"UTF-8\"\n }\n start_position => \"beginning\"\n }\n}\n#filter {\n# json {\n# source => \"message\"\n# }\n#}\noutput {\n stdout {\n codec => rubydebug\n }\n}\n\n"}
[2017-02-28T11:37:29,951][WARN ][logstash.agent ] stopping pipeline {:id=>"main"}
[2017-02-28T11:37:30,434][INFO ][logstash.pipeline ] Starting pipeline {"id"=>"main", "pipeline.workers"=>4, "pipeline.batch.size"=>125, "pipeline.batch.delay"=>5, "pipeline.max_inflight"=>500}
[2017-02-28T11:37:30,446][INFO ][logstash.pipeline ] Pipeline main started
^C[2017-02-28T11:40:55,039][WARN ][logstash.runner ] SIGINT received. Shutting down the agent.
[2017-02-28T11:40:55,049][WARN ][logstash.agent ] stopping pipeline {:id=>"main"}
^C[2017-02-28T11:40:55,475][FATAL][logstash.runner ] SIGINT received. Terminating immediately..
The signal INT is in use by the JVM and will not work correctly on this platform
[trex#Latitude-E5510 Shipping_Data_To_ES]$ ./logstash-5.2.1/bin/logstash -f logstash-5.2.1/config/shakespeare.conf --config.test_and_exit
^C[trex#Latitude-E5510 Shipping_Data_To_ES]$ ./logstash-5.2.1/bin/logstash -f logstash-5.2.1/config/shakespeare.conf --confireload.automatic
^C[trex#Latitude-E5510 Shipping_Data_To_ES]$ ./logstash-5.2.1/bin/logstash -f logstash-5.2.1/config/shakespeare.conf --config.reload.aumatic
Sending Logstash's logs to /home/trex/Development/Shipping_Data_To_ES/logstash-5.2.1/logs which is now configured via log4j2.properties
[2017-02-28T11:45:48,752][INFO ][logstash.pipeline ] Starting pipeline {"id"=>"main", "pipeline.workers"=>4, "pipeline.batch.size"=>125, "pipeline.batch.delay"=>5, "pipeline.max_inflight"=>500}
[2017-02-28T11:45:48,785][INFO ][logstash.pipeline ] Pipeline main started
[2017-02-28T11:45:48,875][INFO ][logstash.agent ] Successfully started Logstash API endpoint {:port=>9600}
Why Logstash doesn't put my JSON documents in stdout?

Answer 1

Did you try including the file type within your file input:
input {
file {
path => "/home/trex/Development/Shipping_Data_To_ES/shakespeare.json"
type => "json" <-- add this
//codec => json {} <-- for the moment i'll comment this
start_position => "beginning"
}
}
And then have your filter as such:
filter{
json{
source => "message"
}
}
OR if you're going with the codec plugin make sure to have the synopsis as such within your input:
codec => "json"
OR you might want to try out json_lines plugin as well. Hope this thread comes in handy.

Answer 2

It appears that sincedb_path is important to read JSON files. I was able to import the JSON only after adding this option. It is needed to maintain the current position in the file to be able to resume from that position in case the import is interrupted. I don't need any position tracking, so I just set this to /dev/null and it works.
The basic working Logstash configuration:
input {
file {
path => ["/home/trex/Development/Shipping_Data_To_ES/shakespeare.json"]
start_position => "beginning"
sincedb_path => "/dev/null"
}
}
output {
stdout {
codec => json_lines
}
elasticsearch {
hosts => ["localhost:9200"]
index => "shakespeare"
}
}